The alarm bells haven’t turned into wedding bells, not just yet, but Stoke City and the Championship being a marriage made in heaven doesn’t require as much imagination as it once did.

We were hoping to see Stoke hit the ground running from day one; then we were hoping it would all just click into place over any given 90 minutes; but Saturday provided further evidence that any eventual success will come via a transition, probably a lengthy transition, and one that will no doubt test our patience to breaking point.

For 20 minutes or so at the start of the afternoon Stoke were playing like the team we thought we might see on the opening weekend at Leeds.

They were so good, nobaly assisted by an early goal, that Wednesday were actually in awe, or so it seemed, and in front of their own fans.

They were so good that Gary Rowett later described it as being as good as anything produced by any of his previous teams at Burton, Birmingham or Derby.

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Scoring a second by the 22nd minute left you wondering not if they would win, but by how many.

This was how it was meant to be when we puffed out our chests and positively relished the prospect of a Championship campaign paved with gold.

But that transition, if that’s what we are witnessing, won’t let us away so lightly, and so on Saturday, and maybe for a good many more games to come, we witnessed the smooth with the rough and will simply have to grin and bear it.

Stoke had Wednesday down, but not quite out on Saturday (Image: Leanne Bagnall)

For Stoke’s old failings, those which have left supporters burying their head in their hands from London to Leeds, would resurface at Hillsborough just as we were glimpsing the possibility of a brighter future.

And so 2-0 and strolling became 2-1 and stumbling, setting up a tense little climax which almost inevitably - given our well-versed sense of doom - concluded with a late Sheffield equaliser.

One point when it should have been three and fans, particularly those with a bone to pick with their club and their team, were left with plenty to bemoan once more.

Several players could lay claim to their best personal display of their season so far, not least Benik Afobe, and no-one will be more relieved than the striker himself to be generating headlines at the right end of a tabloid newspaper.

Stoke’s opening goal was barely 70 seconds in arriving and is entitled to declare itself an early contender for team goal-of-the-season.

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Tom Ince squirrelled his way out of a tight corner inside his own half and fed Peter Etebo to move matters into the Wednesday half before Mame Diouf freed Afobe right of goal for a thumping finish into the roof of the net.

It fair took away the breath of home fans and they still hadn’t truly recovered it by the time Stoke’s dominance was rewarded with a second when Ince’s tricky little through ball was partially deflected for Afobe to beat the Wednesday keeper.

Afobe, scorer of two goals during a loan spell at Wednesday in 2014, was beside himself as he doubled his season’s tally and began looking like the striker Stoke thought they had acquired in the summer.

Wednesday weren’t down and out, but they were on their knees, so the sight of Barry Bannan flinging the ball towards the Stoke box less than three minutes later and seeing it chested down for Marco Matias too trundle home was truly gut wrenching.

A sense of `here we go again’ swept through the ranks - both players and fans you suspect - though an impressive full debut from Ryan Woods would sustain spirits on both fronts.

Here’s a player we all remember from the playground, the guy who demanded the ball because he knew he was probably the best player there, and while Woods is probably more modest than that, you do feel instant reassurance whenever he’s in possession.

He was caught in near-fatal circumstances once in the second half, but we’ll forgive him one faux pas after joining a team used to treating us to so many more.

He deserved to hear his name sung from the stands, even if it did sound more like a lament, but maybe it will be accompanied by more harmony next time we hear it chanted.

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Jack Butland safely parried the effort set up by that rare Woods error, while the keeper was also down smartly in the 77th minute to prevent a low cross shot arrowing into his far corner, but otherwise it was Stoke bemoaning their failure to convert a series of half chances.

Afobe wasn’t a million miles away from his third after Bannan nicked the ball off his toe before he could shoot in the first half, while in the second a defender headed away as he was poised to convert and then a clearance cannoned off the two-goal striker to force the Wednesday keeper into a scrambling save.

Benik Afobe scores Stoke City's second goal of the game against Sheffield Wednesday. (Image: Leanne Bagnall)